WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?

Almogordo, NM- The Rev. Jack Brock of Christ Community Church last week decided to have an outdoor meeting of his congregation. What could be wrong with that? Outside under the stars - neighbors getting together...sounds nice, huh?

Well, the one kink in the story is that this man of God, this community leader was running a good old fashioned book burning. Can you believe it?? Book burning. 21st century. The Nazis burned books. The Taliban burned, well, everything. The "protection" of the innocents was utmost in these people's minds. An insecure leadership doesn't want opposite viewpoints to be out there where they can be read. Fair enough.

The books that were burned that night in New Mexico: Harry Potter. Yep, that's right, folks. They claim the Harry Potter books were teaching kids that witchcraft is good. They were worried that these books were going to lead kids to the dark side. Oh, besides the Potter books they also burned Shakespeare. Just for good measure.

This is alternately laughable and infuriating. I always get a good chuckle out of religious knuckleheads who have to do things like standing outside movie theatres "warning" you not to go in or the people who told me I was going to Hell for going into the Brooklyn Museum to see the "Virgin Mary" by Chris Ofilis. Pretty funny. However, I wanna drive out to Almogordo and smack this guy in the head.

Again, we are treated to hate courtesy of organized religion. This reminds me of this other "man of God" who, a few years back, would go to funerals of AIDS patients and preach in the cemetery telling the parents that their deceased children were going to Hell. How can these people read the "good book" and draw so much hate from it?

Hoboken, NJ - I was driving through this incredibly crowded little town just outside New York City the other day. It's a small (one square mile) city that is set up on a grid type traffic pattern. The place is notorious for having more cars than legal parking spaces, so there is a lot of double parking. There is a lot of pedestrian traffic, as well. The local taxi drivers are nuts and they fly through the stop signs after pausing long enough to lightly sound their horns as a warning.

As I'm driving I slow down at the intersections (even though the stops are opposite me) to protect my ass and am greeted by a very loud and very steady horn in back of me. I look in the mirror to see a young woman (with a kid in the front seat) gesticulating wildy. I do it at the next block only to see the woman speed up in order to get in back of me fast enough to do the horn and hand waving bit again. After the third time I move to one side and wave her past. Instead of just going on she stops, rolls down the window and starts yelling.

"You don't have to stop! You don't have to stop! THEY have the stop! You don't HAVE to stop!" She is doing this right in front of the kid. Actually she is screaming past the kid's head. OK, we have an impatient idiot who was not so much in a hurry but was upset that I was doing something she didn't agree with. Can you imagine what that kid is going to turn out like?

Oh, if you're wondering how I responded to this, I did my usual. A completely serene blank stare accompanied by a slight look of amazement. Gets 'em every time.

Austin, TX - George W Bush was honored by the state of Texas with a portrait of the former Governor. He got teary-eyed while he recalled the good times they had.

The good times consisted of:

Highest number of people executed in the nation (including a case that's still being fought because the convicted man's lawyer kept falling asleep during the trial and the state STILL wants to fry him).

Third lowest education scores in the nation

One of the highest rates of pollution in the nation

There was a great line in King of the Hill this week: Bobby brings in his report card consisting of 1 C minus, 2 C s and a B. Peggy remarks that with grades like that he could become Governor then President.

The truly bone chilling truth these days is that this phony has an 86% approval rating. He is now a "leader". Wait a second - isn't this the same man who, for the first nine months of his Presidency, wasn't allowed to have a press conference? He only read prepared speeches. His "handlers" "decided" he was finally "ready" to have one.

Doesn't this stuff bother people? When are these sheep going to realize that you are not being a John Walker (shit, what about THAT guy?) if you criticize your leader during wartime. The guy is a loser, folks. We're in a recession and unemployment is at its highest rate in years. Doesn't mean I don't want the terrorism ring broken apart. I am against anybody who uses murder and mayhem to get their point heard. But I am also against the fact that our President was obviously installed in the office.

I was told when I was in school that "anyone can grow up to be President". Yeah, anyone with a father who ran the CIA, who gets you out of military duty, who gets you into Yale despite not having good enough grades... Yes, our "leader" with the 86% approval rating was pronouncing the word "subliminal" as "subliminable"...WHILE he was the Governor of Texas.